How green is your travel?

The travel industry is under a lot of pressure today from various different angles. Firstly there was the massive hike in fuel prices that have had disastrous effects across the industry, followed closely by a global recession which has decimated travel order books for the coming months. All the time there is the spectre of environmental considerations looming in the background, as the travel industry has been highlighted as a major user of fossil fuels. Not only the travel companies themselves, but their clients too where they are part of large corporations, municipal bodies or charities are obliged to examine their carbon footprint and declare publicly that they will pledge to be 'green'.
There are a number of options that the travel companies can pursue to paint a greener picture and turn the situation to their advantage with some clever Travel Marketing.
Carbon off-setting is a popular way to give the right impression, but there are other avenues such as being associated with research into new fuels and technologies. All industries should be working towards showing willingness to be greener, but the travel industry in particular needs to give assurances to their customers, that they are concerned about environmental issues. This could be done simply by replacing any fleet road vehicles that they might own with dual-fuel or green fuel vehicles. The impact on the public is not so much in the detail as in the way in which this is publicly perceived - that's the beauty of marketing.